Within the context of the public communication policy instigated by the Government of Monaco when the Principality was removed from the OECD’s “grey list” last October, H.E. Mr Franck Biancheri, Government Counsellor for Exterior Relations and International Economic and Financial Affairs, and Ms Sophie Thevenoux, Government Counsellor for Economy and Finance, met Monegasque professionals yesterday at a conference-debate held in the Grimaldi Forum.

400 people, including members of the banking community, solicitors, lawyers, tax advisors, chartered accountants and legal and financial consultants, met to take part in the session.

After a detailed presentation of the current situation lasting close to one hour, H.E. Mr Franck Biancheri and Ms Thevenoux answered the participants’ various questions.

Questions were chiefly focused on two agreements for transparency and tax cooperation:

- the TIEA (Tax Information Exchange Agreement), which lays down the procedure for the exchange of information on request and on an individual basis, between the tax authorities of the signatory countries;

- the DTA (Double Taxation Agreement), which is a more extensive agreement than the previous one in that it is aimed at tightening economic and financial ties between two countries, since it includes, in addition to an exchange of information on the request of the tax authorities, tax provisions whose purpose is to avoid double taxation.